Time wasters dialing 111 are clogging emergency lines and police say that could lead to fatalities.
The issue's all the more frustrating as unprecedented phone traffic's already putting pressure on call centres, with extra staff being drafted in.
In November more than 77,000 calls were taken and one of those weeks saw more than 19,700 calls, which is the highest number since records began.
Only 20 percent of calls to 111 result in an emergency response.
In recent calls to 111, some wanted help as they couldn't turn their TV off, a woman called as her hair colouring product wasn't the same as the one on the box and she wanted a refund and a caller couldn't stand the smell of her sick husband's vomit and wanted a cleaner.
"A classic example would be the person who rung up on 111 to tell us somebody had stolen their cannabis," Inspector Mal Schwartfeger told 1 NEWS.
Inspector Paul Jeremy stated police: "Do have people who will call up who've just been, or are even being, seriously assaulted. That could be recent victims of serious violence offending or even sexual offending and those are the calls that we're really concerned about that can't get through."
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